As we enter into the second week of the 2008 College Football season, all eyes will be on the Navy vs. Ball State game Friday afternoon. This was the most bet on game of the day by Friday morning. And no doubt the bookmakers will be looking to make up some of their profits after being hammered by the New York Giants win (both straight up and against the spread) Thursday night.
The public money has been on Navy all week long and the reaction from online bookmakers is telling in that they have moved the Ball State line down from -7 ½ to -6 ½, a reaction that tells us they are trying to get more money on favored Ball State. The odds makers across the board believe that Navy has a better than 50 percent chance of covering in this one.
Only 10 percent of online sports books had the line posted at -7 by noon Friday. BetED.com was one such website and that number was expected to move off the -7 rather quickly.
A Navy cover will not hurt the books too bad as approximately 65 percent of spread action is on this underdog. A Navy outright win will to some degree with 75 percent action on the money line. The OVER had 87 percent of the action even after the line went up from 58.5 to 61.5.
Navy vs. Ball State will start at 7 pm EST.
